The Ohio State football team will open the 2015 season without its best defensive player and three others.
On Thursday, the Buckeyes announced that All-American defensive end Joey Bosa, H-backs Jalin Marshall and Dontre Wilson, and wide receiver Corey Smith have been suspended for the team’s Sept. 7 game at Virginia Tech due to unspecified violations of team rules. ESPN’s Joe Schad reports that the suspensions were the result of marijuana use and academic issues.
As Tim May of The Columbus Dispatch notes, most one-game suspensions stem from a second failed drug test for recreational drugs and/or not keeping up with school work. Any sanctions from performance-enhancing drug use are typically more severe.
Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said he has known about the violations for a while.
“I kind of knew about this for a little bit,” Meyer said. “The university and the athletic department has policies that I fully support. Whether it’s a sprained ankle or stuff [like a suspension], you try to create a culture and move forward. We lost Braxton Miller [last season] 10 days before our first game, we lost J.T. Barrett a week before the Big Ten championship game, and you just push forward. Get going, move forward.”
The biggest name among the list of suspensions is Bosa, who is the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. He was considered a sure-fire top-five NFL draft pick if he decided to declare for the draft after this season, and it’s unclear if this will have any effect on his stock.
